Dr. Tanya Faltens is the Educational Content Creation Manager for the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), which created the open access nanoHUB.org cyber-platform to help advance the goals of the National Nanotechology Initiative (NNI).

Her technical background is in Materials Science and Engineering (Ph.D. UCLA 2002), and she has several years’ experience in hands-on informal science education, including working at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.

While at Cal Poly Pomona, she taught the first year engineering course, mentored student capstone research projects, and introduced nanoHUB simulation tools into the undergraduate curriculum in materials science and engineering and electrical engineering courses. In 2011, Dr. Faltens was elected to the Wall of COOL for her use of technology in the classroom. Check out the 2011 archive for details at https://elearning.csupomona.edu/cool/ .

Dr. Faltens enjoys finding ways to present STEM concepts to broad audiences and encouraging students, including women and others in traditionally under-represented groups, to consider graduate school. Five of her former undergraduate research students have been admitted to Ph.D. programs, with 4 currently enrolled.

Some of Dr. Faltens' current projects include investigating the value added to education by incorporating simulations, creating pathways to introduce a diverse range of students to research opportunities in computational simulations, connecting with teaching faculty across the country and around the world to share ideas on how nanoHUB simulations and other educational resources can be used in their courses, and encouraging them to publish their own material on nanoHUB. Join the intro to nanoHUB group to play around with some functionality of groups and to see examples of exercises incorporating nanoHUB simulations that can be used in lower division courses.

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nanoHUB.org, a resource for nanoscience and nanotechnology, is supported by the National Science Foundation and other funding agencies. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.